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Talk:Diclonius/@comment-4830988-20120210040006
Nevermind; the Lucy page says her children would be fertile and not Silpelits. Somehow I didn't get this from the anime... in my memory they just said Lucy was "also capable of reproducing in a different way," i.e. sexually, and I simply assumed her children would be Silpelits because all other Diclonius that I knew of were Silpelits. Whoops! Left my comment below in case anyone finds it interesting... I have a question about the concept of Diclonius replacing the human race. On the contrary, it seems to me that Diclonius can ONLY maintain a sustainable population if they coexist alongside a stable population of humans. Here's my reasoning. As I understand it, the difference between the Queen and Silpelits is that the Queen can reproduce sexually, whereas the Silpelits can't. Independent of sexual reproduction, both types of Diclonius indirectly "reproduce" Diclonius babies by infecting a human male with the virus. If all that is correct, then there are two reasons why Diclonius would need humans forever in order to continue as a species. First, only Lucy is capable of directly giving birth to her own baby. As a result, "direct" Diclonius descendants (i.e. those born through sexual reproduction) are limited to the birth-children of Lucy during her lifetime. Assuming her sexual physiology is similar to humans, she could only produce one child (or occasionally twins, triplets, etc.) every nine months until menopause. So Diclonius are left with first-generation Silpelits, plus a single generation of Lucy's children -- the latter would total, at most, a few dozen Diclonius. Afterward the species would die off, due to inability to reproduce after the first generation. The second reason why Diclonius could not sustain itself without humans is that, even if Silpelits _could_ reproduce sexually, the birth of male Diclonii is extremely rare, if not a one-time freak genetic event. So even fertile Diclonius females (like Lucy herself) must mate with human males. Bottom line: Diclonius need a stable of human males to infect, so that those males can impregnate human females with Diclonius children. Even Lucy requires a human male to reproduce sexually. So without humans, Diclonius dies out after one generation, leaving the planet without humans OR Diclonius. Two possible exceptions here. First, because Lucy herself never had her own children, we don't know if they would be the same as Silpelits. It's possible that Lucy's direct descendants (and their children) would be both fertile and balanced between males and females. Second, it's also possible that the sexual physiology of Queens is completely different than female humans -- e.g., more like queen insects. The Queen would produce a huge number of children, including the next generation Queen(s). That would explain the rarity of males, because only a handful would be necessary to impregnate the single fertile Queen (although such a "King" is not present in the animal kingdom as a counterpart to "queens," who I believe just mate with normal male "drones"). Setting aside those two possible exceptions, both being pure speculation, I can't see how Diclonius could continue as a species without co-existing alongside humans. If so, this fact has huge moral implications for the story. If Diclonius can only survive through co-existence with humans, then the complete destruction of the human race cannot be their genetic destiny. That would support the "nurture" theory of Diclonius violence toward humans -- that exhibited by almost all Diclonius, as well as Lucy's particular "DNA voice." Furthermore, the existence of two distinct humanoid populations, with the stronger dependent on the weaker, would further enrich the story's themes of empathy, tolerance of difference, and family love in contrast to child abuse. One final caveat: It's possible that Diclonius were never going to survive as a species at all. Their existence is frequently referred to as a "mutation," and most mutants die without passing on their traits. In the long run, only "fit" mutants, whose mutations actually enhance the possibility of survival and reproduction, can spread genetic change in the larger population. Some things about Diclonius clearly make them biologically "fit" (i.e., powerful vectors; sensing each other), while others make them less fit (possible violent tendencies; apparent sterility; apparent lack of males). Under this scenario, a natural urge to destroy humans is still possible, but it, too, would just be a futile mutation that wouldn't prevent Diclonius from immediately dying out. Okay, so what do you guys think about all this? I feel like something must be wrong with my logic because the destiny of Diclonius is depicted as the exact opposite of co-existing with humans. I haven't read the manga -- does it shed any light here? Could it simply be a possible plot hole? Or did I miss some obvious explanation that Lucy's children would not be Silpelits?